A Senate committee has told the Albanese government to issue a national apology to LGBTQ+ veterans and service personnel who were discriminated against in the Australian Defence Force (Guardian Australia).

The report, released on 31 July 2026, goes further than a bill the Parliament is already considering. That bill would let the government wipe out old criminal convictions for conduct that is no longer a crime. But the committee wants more. It wants what it calls "restorative outcomes" for people who were targeted by discriminatory policies — including for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Until 1990, the ADF banned homosexual people from serving. If you were found out, you could be discharged, convicted, or have your security clearance taken away. The report lists a range of discriminatory actions: administrative discharge, forced resignation, and security clearance revocation.

David Gibson was kicked out of the ADF in 1989 because he was bisexual. He now chairs an organisation called GLBTI Rights in Ageing (GRAI) and gave evidence at the royal commission into defence and veteran suicides. He told Guardian Australia the prime minister should apologise, calling it "long overdue" (Guardian Australia).

Gibson's case is not a one-off. People have been pushing for recognition for years. In October 2018, Guardian Australia ran a story calling for a national apology, featuring Danny Liversidge, a Royal Australian Air Force driver who had wanted to serve 20 years before being pushed out (Guardian Australia, 2018). The ADF's own publication, The Forge, has published a piece on why an apology and redress for discharged LGBT service members matters (The Forge).

The committee's recommendations are practical. It wants affected veterans to be able to have their defence records updated to show they were targeted because of discrimination. It also wants the defence department to give a certificate of honourable service to people who suffered under the policies.

People who made submissions to the Parliament on the Defence Force Discipline Amendment Bill 2026 have been saying the same thing. One submission, dated 17 July 2026, says any apology should make clear there should never have been systemic discrimination against LGBTI service personnel (Parliamentary submission). Another, from Yvonne Sillett, called for the bill to cover veterans who were pushed out without being convicted of anything (Parliamentary submission).

Here is why that distinction matters. The bill on the table deals with people who were convicted of a service offence. But many LGBTQ+ personnel were never convicted of anything. They were simply discharged, forced to resign, or stripped of their security clearances. The committee and submissions like Sillett's say any fix has to cover both groups — the people who were convicted and the people who were pushed out through administrative means.

The Albanese government is already moving on the legislation. The question is whether it accepts the committee's push to go wider, or sticks with the narrower bill it already has.

In my view, that gap matters a lot. For veterans like Gibson, the difference between the two options is the difference between a paperwork fix and the government admitting what happened to them was wrong from the start.